In Gathering

These are the words used for our Ingathering of New Members on Sunday mornings when we celebrate new members joining us.

Ceremony of Membership and Covenant

MINISTER: Out of their hopes and dreams, the People fashion a community of love and service. In Unitarian Universalism, membership is a matter of personal choice, a decision to join a congregation of caring hearts and open minds.

ALL: We give life to these ideas … by supporting each other in times of joy and need; by encouraging spiritual exploration and personal growth; and by serving the wider world in accordance with Unitarian Universalist principles. We welcome for membership every person who shares these values.

REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CONGREGATION: On behalf of the members of Mission Peak, I welcome you to our Unitarian Universalist family.

NEW MEMBERS: We are ready to join this community of love and service. We bring our talent and enthusiasm, our shortcomings and our doubts. We ask that you reach out to include us as full participants in the life of Mission Peak.

CONGREGATION: We are honored that you have chosen to join this congregation. May we grow together as a caring community.

MINISTER: Affirming one another in love, let us covenant together this day:

ALL: As members of Mission Peak Congregation, we commit ourselves to challenge and nurture one another, to speak honestly, to act with compassion, and to live with integrity. We pledge to support Mission Peak- with hearts and hands, with talents and resources, to become a voice for passion, reason, and justice, and a community in which we can respond joyfully and courageously to all that life brings us.

(At the conclusion of the Ingathering Ceremony we present our new members with a plant as a symbol of the growth and flowering they will experience as members of Mission Peak, as well as the growth and changes that occurs for Mission Peak each time another person joins our congregation.)